Electrical Technology

First Edition, last update January 18, 2010

2

Lessons In Electric Circuits, Volume VI – Experiments
By Tony R. Kuphaldt
First Edition, last update January 18, 2010

i c 2002-2011, Tony R. Kuphaldt
This book is published under the terms and conditions of the Design Science License. These terms and conditions allow for free copying, distribution, and/or modification of this document by the general public. The full Design Science License text is included in the last chapter.
As an open and collaboratively developed text, this book is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the Design Science
License for more details.
Available in its entirety as part of the Open Book Project collection at: openbookproject.net/electricCircuits PRINTING HISTORY
• First Edition: Printed in April 2002. Source files written in SubML format. SubML is a
A
simple markup language designed to easily convert to other markups like LTEX, HTML, or DocBook using nothing but search-and-replace substitutions.

ii

Contents
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Electronics as science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Setting up a home lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1
1
3
14

2 BASIC CONCEPTS AND TEST EQUIPMENT
2.1 Voltmeter usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Ohmmeter usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 A very simple circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Ammeter usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5 Ohm’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.6 Nonlinear resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.7 Power dissipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.8 Circuit with a switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.9 Electromagnetism . . . . . . . . . .